Organized Optometry Grandstanding
So my old cui congressus, the Armed Forces Optometric Society (AFOS), decided to show off a bit. They sent a letter demanding that 1800 Contacts cease and desist a certain practice on their website. 1800Contacts changed the practice in question, and then AFOS published their letter with great triumph in their April 2008 newsletter.
The item in question is apparently that when someone selected a ship to FPO/APO (military speak for Fleet/Army Post Office), the 1800 website indicated that they did not require verification of the contact lens prescription. The letter was sent on March 28, 2008, and by the April 2008 edition of the AFOS newsletter, 1-800 had changed their website to indicate that FPO/APO address still required verification.
Okay, now if I were the optometrist to find out about the FPO/APO verification snaffu, then I would have maybe shot off a private e-mail or a phone call, probably stating the same thing about believing that the policy could be in violation of FCLCA. But then I wouldn’t be thinking like Big Optometry. Organized Optometry needs a win. After the AOA suffered a humiliating loss to 1-800 over the whole FCLCA, they need to throw it back in 1-800’s face. Even though military eye docs don’t sell contacts, AFOS must grandstand the point that they scored big against the eeeevil 1-800 Contacts.
Okay, here’s my question. Did AFOS seek out every other online retailer of contact lenses to check their policy about prescription verification of FPO/APO ship-to addresses? Did they send all of the other retailers letters about “a legal oversight” and publish these concerned memos in their next newsletter?
Tags: 1-800, AOA, Organized OptometryComments Off on Organized Optometry Grandstanding
